Wednesday, February 29, 2012

This evening I unloaded two cinder blocks and two cinder block caps from the pick-up truck. It is full of a new load of compost. I placed the block along the edge of one of the raised beds. It is becoming a keyhole bed as I rehabilitate the soil there.

I hand-weeded some tall grass at the edge of last year’s cardboard, where that soil has been undergoing solarization. I put some more cardboard and heavy yard bags over the new soil to prevent more grass from growing there. I am not sure whether I willhand -weed the rest of the area. It is very time consuming. However, the soil is nice and moist and there are earthworms in it.

I watered the onions. Another bed which is undergoing the same style of soil rehabilitation has the best onions so far. It has been getting kitchen scraps. The other beds all have the new good compost and soil mix.

I scattered a seed mix of everything left over from a couple of years ago, including wild flowers, vegetables and other native seeds in my Wildscape and along areas which still need to be filled in in my front lawn. Most of them will get eaten by the birds and rabbits, but some of them may grow.

In the wheelbarrow was a planting mix with mushroom compost and cotton burr compost that I made a couple of days ago. I emptied that batch into three five-gallon buckets for seed starting and transplanting.

My first set of transplanted lettuce grown from seed are prospering. I have transplanted a few other seed starts, a couple of cabbage, cucumber, peppers, and daisies. I will see how they do.

This is all new. Some of these new trials are working. It is very exciting in a quiet kind of way.